Fashioning Iceland’s past in the present: An example of (dis)connections of traditional dress in the Arctic

Abstract

While a version of Icelandic heritage is exhibited in modern fashion, the imagery is a recent invention without specific historical context. Yet, centuries-old outfits with accompanying components that form the canon of Icelandic women’s national dress are well-established cultural elements. There are three categories of national dress that are instantly recognizable and have well-defined variations of national dress that figure more than ever in formal events and celebrations. However, these do not seem to be referenced in designers’ efforts to create distinctly Icelandic and Arctic imagery through fashionable clothing. Revealing how this appears and why may provide clues to what prompts similar disconnects in other Arctic communities and small-group cultures in which vivid national dress iconography is separated from fashionable apparel. We reveal this separation through fieldwork and interviews conducted in 2021 and 2022 in Reykjavík and online, a look at historical paths of national dress, an examination of cultural underpinnings and attitudes, and references to Jean Baudrillard’s theory on the evolution of symbols in society. We illustrate the gravitational pull of ritualistic contexts that effectively distance national dress from designed fashion. We follow the development of Iceland’s iconic ‘Lady of the Mountain’ and her dress, observing how their emergence and eventual fusing removed them and their symbolic presence from the day-to-day world of fashionable apparel.